Valentine's Silhouette
by Toofdap
Summary: Just how does Sirius get so many Valentine's cards each year? Pairing: RemusSirius. Warnings: Slash


Valentine's Silhouette

_Archive_: Padfoot...Snuffles, Azkaban's Lair, Meant to Be  
_Summary_: Just how does Sirius get so many Valentine's cards each year?   
_Pairing_: Remus & Sirius  
_Disclaimer_: JK Rowling owns everything, not me  
_Spoilers_: POA  
_Author's Notes_: Marauder era. Inspired by Sonnet 17 - a fic on Azkaban's Lair by Mieko Belle.

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Remus slowly opened his eyes, squinting at the sunlight streaming through the window. Normally he would wake up early so he could spend time studying in the library before classes, but today was a different matter. Firstly it was a Saturday and secondly it was Valentine's Day.

Sirius and James had a competition between them each year to see who could receive the most Valentine's cards in twenty-four hours. The owls had begun to stream in through the window at 6am last year, waking all the students as they flew down the corridors to reach their recipients.

This year Dumbledore had set up a time ward to prevent any feathered visitors (apart from the school owls) from gaining inside access to the buildings until 9am. Sirius and James had complained to the headmaster, but the owls had streamed in through his office window where he was working last year, resulting in him dropping a bottle of ink over his morning's work, so the ban was certainly justified. 

Climbing out of bed, Remus took his time in dressing: he wasn't in any hurry to see his two friends fighting over their cards. Even Peter had tried joining in the competition last year, beating Remus by three, but losing spectacularly to James and Sirius who had reached over a hundred each. "This year", he thought, "is going to be worse. Especially if Sirius uses that copy-charm he's learnt."

Fully dressed now, Remus made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was 8:57am and he was hoping to just miss the owls soar in and the resulting mess over the tables and everything else. Letting the other students enter first, he wandered over to the Gryffindor table and sat in the only spare seat, next to James who was in deep discussion with Sirius about who would win their competition.

Remus realised he was still too early when Professor Dumbledore rose at the front of the hall declaring it was 9am. The resulting cheer was lost in the sound of thousands of owls streaming through the open windows, and those not-so-bright owls attempting to fly through the solid glass of the closed ones. 

Remus looked up half-heartedly. He had never received a Valentine's Day card and didn't expect today to be any different, after all who would want him when they could have Sirius or even James? Suddenly Remus felt something on his shoulder and looked round. A tawny owl was perched on his shoulder, with what looked like a card clamped in his beak. Taking the card gently from the owl, Remus watched as it flew off again until it was lost in the cobalt sky.

Next to him, James was counting his cards, stealing a glance every few seconds at Sirius to check the height of his card pile. This year looked like it was going to be very close, maybe even a draw.

Remus hardly noticed the competition in the seat next to him, wondering who would send him a card. He hadn't opened it at the table, just in case it was a hoax sent by Malfoy or Snape. He knew Goyle and Crabbe wouldn't have sent it, as they could hardly write their own names let alone his.

Carefully stashing the card in his robes, Remus looked over towards James and Sirius who were measuring the height of their card mountains. James was demanding a recount and had drafted in Lily to be the "independent judge". Sirius wasn't looking very happy at the choice of judge, as it was clear from the way she acted that Lily preferred James to him.

After breakfast, Remus abandoned the Gryffindor table, leaving Peter to watch the competition enter the third recount and James adding Peter's own two cards into his pile (until he was spotted by Lily of course). Unnoticed, Remus walked briskly back to the common room, where he was sure of some privacy to open his card. Slightly breathless, he stuttered the password to the Fat Lady and clambered through, quickly scanning the room for any signs of other students being there. 

"Good, there's no-one here" he whispered, deciding that now was the best chance of seeing this card of his than any other time he would get alone.

Lifting the card from his robes, he carefully opened the envelope it was in, the small neat handwriting on the front giving no clues as to its sender. Pulling out the card he gasped, the card was blank on the outside. Tears welling in his eyes at the injustice of his one single solitary card being utterly blank, he opened it and stared: that too was blank. Completely and utterly empty.

Tears trickled down his cheeks as he held the card up the light, then tapped it with his wand trying to make words appear. Still nothing. Walking slowly back to the dorms, he placed the card next to his bed in the light from the window.

Realising the time, with a silent tear welling in his amber eyes, Remus made his way back to the great hall in time to meet James and Sirius who were still arguing over the card total. At the sight of the amber-eyed boy approaching, Sirius stopped arguing with James, and dropped his gaze to Remus' shoes rather than his eyes.

Those amber eyes didn't notice the strange action, Remus' thoughts focussing entirely on his blank card, his attention-span in classes that day even less than Sirius and Peter's, which some of the Professors would have never deemed possible. 

That evening, Remus clambered into bed and lay on his side facing the window and his mysterious blank card. The crescent moon and surrounding stars lit up the sky, casting a strange glow onto the room. Tears were stinging in his gentle amber eyes as he fought to work out who on earth would send him a blank card.

As the glow from the window reached the card, Remus gasped and leant over towards the window for a closer look at it. There were words appearing on the previously blank paper. Sitting up, he swung his legs out of bed, and walked the two paces to the window picking up the card as he passed. Leaning on the window sill, Remus gazed at the card and the words that had just appeared.

Opening it, he gasped once more as he read the writing inside, "meet me in the starlight, under the window of your dorm, my Valentine". A picture had also appeared, of a wolf in the moonlight holding a red rose.

Not paying much attention to the picture, just keen to find out who was actually interested in him as their Valentine, Remus hurried to find his robes, casting a quick spell to clear the tears from his eyes. He walked briskly towards the common room; first checking no one was down there, then headed for the Fat Lady's portrait.

Climbing out of the portrait hole he turned, heading for the wall of their dorm. He slowed the speed of his pace so as not to appear too keen to find out who had sent the card. As he neared the wall, he became aware of a figure in the darkness, a silhouette about his height, with long luxurious hair. Remus was slightly puzzled, as all the girls in his year group were shorter than him even when they were wearing high heels, but he moved a little closer to find out who his Valentine was.

"Sirius? What are you doing here?" Remus' voice broke the late evening silence.  
"Waiting for my Valentine, how about you?" Sirius' voice came back equally brisk.  
"I was... er just... er having a late walk."  
Sirius shrugged and looked up at the stars. Remus turned and made his way back to his bed. If Sirius was waiting to meet his Valentine in the same place, then Remus and his partner for the night would be very unwelcome.

As he reached the bed, Remus took another glance at the card. He gazed for a while at the picture on the front, then a sudden thought crept into his mind. "Moony" he thought "whoever sent me this knows about Moony... Oh Merlin!" Dropping the card, he rushed to the window, leaning out to see if anyone was still below. The silhouette of the longhaired figure was sat on the grass, head buried in their hands.

Remus' heart felt heavy, he hadn't realised it was Sirius who'd sent the card. "He must have been feeling sorry for me," Remus thought, "surely he doesn't..." His heart skipped a beat as he remembered something Sirius had said to him the previous Valentine's Day,  
"all these cards I get are mere fakes Remus. I make them every year just to try and beat James. Merlin I'm not even interested in girls!" 

"I'm not interested in girls" the words stuck in Remus' mind, laying over and over like the needle was stuck on the record. He sat on his bed, trying to think of his reaction to the card and Sirius' apparent interest in him. He had been dreaming over the last few nights of one particular scene, dreaming of starlight walks around Hogwarts trying to find a certain star in the sparkling sky. The Dog Star.

Remus lifted James' invisibility cloak from the bed next to his, and draping it over him walked the same steps back down to the portrait hole and outside to the same wall.

As he neared the sobbing figure, Remus felt tears welling in his eyes again. Tears of remorse this time, guilt for not realising what was actually happening, that Sirius actually did like him in that way, or at least it would seem so. Silently approaching the hunched sobbing silhouette, he paused, trying to work out how best to signify his presence. He was sure that Sirius wouldn't want to be seen crying, but he couldn't just leave him there all night.

Remus resorted for the original idea he had formed, and cast the same spell he'd used on him earlier to dry Sirius' tears. The blue-eyed boy looked round hurriedly, desperate to check who had crept up on him.  
"James? If that's you Prongs, I'll kill you for seeing me like this."  
"I wouldn't think you would be that keen," replied Remus, trying unsuccessfully to keep his voice even, "to kill a werewolf..."   
Sirius' blue eyes widened at the mention of the dark creature he'd admired for years. "Take that cloak off."

Obeying the order, Remus dropped the cloak and walked slowly towards Sirius, his head held low, eyes pointing directly at Sirius' shoes... feet.   
"You've got no shoes on!"  
Sirius looked down a his sock-clad feet, then back to Remus' head  
"I know". 

Confused, Remus began to word his explanation for his earlier mistake. "I didn't realise it was you" he explained "until I looked at the Moony on my card. Then I knew," he whispered, looking up at those dark blue eyes.  
Sirius moved slightly closer to him. "You worked it out then?" he said softly "this is where you run away in disgust, right?" 

Remus stood firm, "certainly not! This is where I..." he took a deep breath, moved towards Sirius and kissed him firmly on the lips. Sirius' eyes showed the surprise he felt at this sudden display of affection from his friend.

Remus moved back, drawing another deep breath and waited for the response from Sirius. "Either he'll be scared because that card was a joke, or he'll love me even more" he thought, even though he personally felt it was the first option.

Sirius stood rooted to the spot, gazing at those amber eyes. Remus returned the gaze, and then noticed a sparkle in the blue eyes. A grin slowly appearing on his lips, Sirius moved forwards so he was almost nose-to-nose with him. "I love the taste of you" he whispered, "I love everything about you, but will you be mine?"  
Remus looked back into those deep cobalt eyes, and thought for a second "surely the question," he replied, a grin appearing on his lips, "is will you, shoe-less as you are, be mine?" They looked at each other's eyes once more, then moved into another melting kiss, as Remus decided he would no longer dread the appearance of February 14th again.


End file.
